-- THE ARCHIVE --

MALAYSIA
Judicial CP - November 2015

The Borneo Post, Kuching, 26 November 2015, p.2

Eight light strokes for rape of underage girl

SIBU: An 18-year-old youth who pleaded guilty to raping a
14-year-old girl was yesterday sentenced by the Juvenile Court
here to eight light strokes of the cane.

The youth was 17 years and seven months old at the time of the
offence between October and November in 2014.

The charge against him was filed under Section 376(1) of the
Penal Code which provides for an imprisonment up to 20 years and
possible whipping.

On Feb 12, police officer Corporal Zainab Razali received a
phone call from Sibu Hospital saying that a girl believed to have
been raped at a longhouse in Sg Naman was being treated at the
hospital emergency room.

The police arrested a suspect from Ulu Naman in Julau/Kanowit
Road at 12.25pm on Sept 7.

Investigation shows that the suspect and the girl were lovers
in 2014 when she was in Form 2. They were said to have sex many
times at the longhouse, always around 2pm.

Their relationship ended towards the end of 2014.

On Feb 12 this year, the girl felt not well while in school,
and was sent to the hospital where she was found to be pregnant.

Her parents were duly notified and a check at Julau Polyclinic
confirmed that she was indeed pregnant. She gave birth to a baby
boy in Sibu Hospital at 7.47am on June 24.

DNA report proves that the accused is the
biological father of the baby.

Zulzaren was given the maximum imprisonment term of 20 years
for raping the 19-year-old victim, eight years and 10 years jail
for committing the unnatural sex whereby he forced the accused to
do oral sex and robbing her of her belongings, respectively.

Meanwhile, Shah Rizal who faced only two charges was also
given maximum jail sentence of 20 years for raping the victim and
10 years' jail for robbery.

All the custodial sentences were ordered to run consecutively
and to take effect from the date of their remand on Nov 8.

The offences were committed at a childcare centre in Taman
Monah in Petrajaya here on Nov 6 between 1am and 6.30am. Earlier
on, they broke into the premises.

The victim was alone in the centre when the incident happened.
In her statement, she said she was traumatised and suffering from
phobia towards her surroundings.

Their defence counsel Lim Lian Kee during the mitigation
pleaded for leniency in sentencing.

Click to enlarge

He said they were youthful offenders when committing the
offence and therefore deserved a second chance to turn over a new leaf.

Lim also emphasised that they were 'man' enough and honest
when deciding to admit to the act rather than claim trial which
will only cost the court time, money and energy.

At the same time, the duo had also wanted to apologise to the
court as well as to the victim for their act, he added.

DPP Poh Yih Tinn, however, strongly opposed the mitigation
submission and urged the sentence imposed be proportionate to the
damage and harm done to the victim.

Poh said they not only physically attacked but had also
sexually assaulted the victim for a length of time, which should
be among the aggravating factors in the heinous act to be
considered, which the judge had agreed with.

He said public interest had to be taken into account, given
the presence of media personnel in the court to follow up on the
case that had shocked members of the public after it came to light.

It was learnt that the girl had fainted many times due to
excessive fear to strangers and had to attend counselling
sessions to overcome the nightmare.